Railroads are much more valuable than most Americans can possibly imagine. And technology will only make it more so, if sufficient people are willing to work on it. Here are some ideas off the top of my head:
* automated trains for long distance travel, self-driving car-2-go's for short distance travel
* integrate future transport modules with the railway network and build more tracks; travel long distance on electric self-driving cars.
Of course, the main obstacle is the high initial capital investment. Here too, anyone really serious should start small: start by helping the current rail operators optimize freight (the real money maker); gain their confidence and then work on a joint project on a small scale; if it works out, then expand throughout the country.
It's painful to see that a country as large as America has such an inadequate railroad system. But maybe it was for the best: countries like France or Japan with an entrenched railway system will have probably have a hard time making the switch to radical new technologies
The main obstacle in the U.S. is that the interstate passenger rail system was nationalized by Congress. Congress forces unprofitable long-distance routes on Amtrak and keeps the monopoly company undercapitalized. Amtrak owns amazing assets like the Northeast corridor rail lines, but there's almost no innovation as the monopoly loses billions of dollars and can't really tap private capital markets.
Meanwhile American freight rail-- totally privately owned and managed-- is the best in the world.
To be fair it was nationalized in the wake of the Penn Central bankruptcy and all of the other railroads wanting to drop passenger rail. Railroads were even able to opt out and I think a few did for a few years but it just didn't make sense to move passengers vs freight.
The actual problem was the federal Interstate Commerce Commission regulated routes and ticket prices and wouldn't give passenger rail companies the flexibility needed to compete with cars and growing air travel. Central planning failed and completely destroyed U.S. passenger rail.
* automated trains for long distance travel, self-driving car-2-go's for short distance travel
* integrate future transport modules with the railway network and build more tracks; travel long distance on electric self-driving cars.
Of course, the main obstacle is the high initial capital investment. Here too, anyone really serious should start small: start by helping the current rail operators optimize freight (the real money maker); gain their confidence and then work on a joint project on a small scale; if it works out, then expand throughout the country.
It's painful to see that a country as large as America has such an inadequate railroad system. But maybe it was for the best: countries like France or Japan with an entrenched railway system will have probably have a hard time making the switch to radical new technologies